Weber Innovation Days: The world as a guest in Breidenbach
Breidenbach, Germany, 19. November 2018. For three days, Weber Maschinenbau again offered a unique event format at the beginning of November with the Weber Innovation Days, which attracted a worldwide audience of experts. About 300 Weber customers and partners accepted the invitation of the system provider in Breidenbach in central Hesse and were inspired by a varied program of expert lectures, industry dialogue and live presentations. This time in focus: Innovations around the efficient processing of bacon and prosciutto.
"Numerous positive voices and enthusiastic feedback from trade visitors once again confirm the idea and intension of the event, so that we will establish it as an integral part of the calendar of the food industry", Peter Schulz, Managing Director Sales and Marketing at Weber, summarizes. "With the Weber Innovation Days we offer a unique concentration of insider know-how and technological innovations. Even customers from Mexico have taken the long journey to Weber to Breidenbach in order not to miss this event. "Neither at trade fairs nor at congresses is direct contact with manufacturers and experts to this extent and with time for personal exchange in relaxed Atmosphere possible.
The Weber Innovation Days were opened this year with insights into the latest findings from research, technology and practice. Three DLG experts pointed out current market, consumption and production trends and pointed out that the meat industry is particularly characterized by high volatility.
How to react to these developments and trends and how to profitably cut and pack bacon and prosciutto was demonstrated by live presentations by Weber Linien. A total of eight slicer and packaging concepts proved first hand that precise slicing, transporting and packaging of bacon and raw ham is possible even at maximum performance. The focus was by far not just on performance: each line represented a tailor-made solution for the applications shown. In particular, Weber's extensive line competence was impressively demonstrated here.
A line consisting of the Weber Slicer S6 with Weber CompactBuffer, Weber PickRobot and the Weber VMAX thermoforming packaging machine demonstrated "slicing and infeeding at its best". The fully automated line is the epitome of high performance and maximum yield. The visitors were able to convince themselves of this with an 2-fach Serrano ham application that was cut and interleaved independently of the track. The sensitive portions were gently transported away on the horizontal and particularly compact CompactBuffer buffer system, then gripped by the latest generation of the Weber PickRobot, rotated by 90 ° and precisely placed in the Weber Thermoformer VMAX. At this point, Weber's line competence was clearly reflected: Thanks to the perfect integration of the individual modules, the PickRobot can also load the portions during the preference of the packaging machine.
Another highlight that met with great interest among the trade visitors was the Weber Slicer 804 combined with the Weber ShuttleSystem and the Weber PickRobot. The fact that this line is characterized by the greatest possible flexibility was presented by the creation of attractive mixed packs - with storage patterns that are not yet on the market. Neither imagination nor possibilities are limited by this Weber line. Of great importance here: the sensitive products are transported by the portion carriers absolutely nondestructive from the slicer to the insertion point on the packaging. Thanks to the Weber ShuttleSystem, a gentle portion transport is always guaranteed even with high performance.
Textor also exhibited highly flexible line solutions from its own portfolio as part of the Weber Group. Specializing in the processing of short products, the TS750 slicer demonstrated high performance and continuity in dual slice bacon. The slicer is characterized by two completely independently running tracks from the infeed of the blanks to the insertion point on the packaging. Once a product is cut to the end on a track, this track can be reloaded. This always results in complete format sets and the production of empty packages is excluded.
The live demonstrations were each accompanied by a presentation by development, sales and application professionals from Weber, which highlighted details on application fields, special features and possibilities of process optimization. "The colleagues are talking to enthusiastic visitors long after the end of the screening. And what pleases us in particular: Above all, the aspect of our integrated line solutions from a single source is perceived and valued by the specialist audience as added value, "says a pleased Peter Schulz.
As in the previous year, the Weber Innovation Days were supplemented by an exhibition of 16 suppliers in the industry, with whom Weber Maschinenbau can look back on many years of partnership. Noteworthy developments along the entire process chain of bacon and raw ham processing, for example in the areas of film or weighing and inspection technology, rounded off the event program.
A Weber team of experts from development, sales and application technology told the trade visitors the highlights of the presented lines.
About weavers
From weight-accurate cutting to the precise placement and packaging of sausage, meat and cheese: Weber Maschinenbau is one of the leading system suppliers for cold cuts and one of the most important addresses for the food processing industry. The portfolio is diverse and offers the perfect solution for all requirements and application areas. Around 1.400 employees at 25 locations in 21 nations are employed by Weber Maschinenbau today and contribute with their commitment and passion to the daily success of the Weber Group. To this day, the company is family owned and managed by Tobias Weber, the eldest son of company founder Günther Weber, as CEO.
